To make your web presence effective you need to be aware of these four key components: content, design / layout, usability and ability to be found. Let’s start off with content.

In the search engine world you’ll hear “content is king” over and over again, and while this is true not everyone understands why. Sure, you can have a ton of content on your website, but if it is not written well people will be less enticed to read it. You want to make sure that your web content is written at a 6th grade or lower level, this helps to ensure that your audience will be able to understand what you are presenting them with. If your topic is extremely complex be sure to explain it thoroughly. If you’re not a great writer, have a professional copywriter Keep in mind that it is the content on your website that is keeping your visitors there, not the flashy design or because you found them through a search engine.

This leads us nicely into the design & layout aspect of your website. You do not want to neglect your website design as the graphics and layout lend credibility to your organization. You have probably been to a website of a store that you frequent and even though their store front looks great their website looks dingy and old. Imagine that you have never been to the store front location. The dingy old image is all that your customer has of you. Be sure to hire a professional web design & development company to handle your website design.

Having a great design can help retain your visitors interest longer but having a site that is not user-friendly will drive them away faster than anything else. Your web visitors have a very short attention span and if they cannot find what they are looking for within the first 15-30 seconds they will leave. Studies show that more than half of those visitors will never return. Having a qualified web development company build the structure and layout of your website will ensure that users will be able to find the information they are looking for. Don’t neglect this area of your website because you “know a friend” that can build websites, they need to understand what makes an effective website and what doesn’t.

The ability to be found online is one of the most important aspects of having a website, after-all what is the point of paying good money for a website and having nobody go to it? Search engine optimization can be a quite complex task and a good web development company should know what to do to make your site as friendly to the search engines as possible. Your web developer should be building your site using the latest web standards to ensure compatibility across various browsers and platforms. They should also not rely heavily on images or flash animation as the search engines cannot easily “see” what is in those files. Your web developer should also know how to use headings, lists and other HTML codes to their advantage to boost your search rankings.

Reynolds Design Studio can handle all of your web development needs from content, layout and design to custom programming, functionality and search engine optimization. Call us today at 507-358-9098 or email sales@reynoldsdesignstudio.com to get started on your web development project today.

Now before you throw your current version of flash out the window, HTML5 won’t be fully released for at least 5-10 years. Developers around the world are meeting on a regular basis to determine what the final functionality of the language should be.

There are ways to start using some of the new HTML5 functionality in your current website applications. Browsers such as Firefox and Chrome are already supporting certain tags. It also appears that Internet Explorer 9 beta also supports a few HTML5 tags.

Right now HTML5 is an important new technology to keep up to date with, but unless your audience has the latest and greatest technology  it would be best to not rely on this technology until it has been officially released.

You can learn more about HTML5 here.

Reynolds Design Studio created a business system (logo, letterhead, business cards and flyer) and website for the new chiropractic team. If you are in need of chiropractic care in the Rochester, MN area be sure to look them up.

RAK Chiropractic can be found at: www.rakchiropractic.com

We have are looking forward to making some additional revisions to the gallery within the next couple of months to allow for more customization by the gallery owner.

~RDS

We felt that WordPress would give them the best solution to their needs while providing a highly search engine friendly platform to help them rank in Google, Yahoo and Bing.

We look forward to building a lasting relationship with the staff at Rochester Feed & Country Store and providing great quality work in the future.

We are actively pushing their site to the search engines to help them rank better for photography related terms throughout Minnesota.

We are excited to see how the new website we created will help their business.

Reynolds Design Studio is proud to annouce the launch of Camp Companion Animal Rescue. We donated our services to Camp Companion as our way of helping to raise awareness for their cause. We worked closely with the board members to create a professional website that would reflect their needs and help drive traffic and donations.

Reynolds Design Studio gave Camp Companion an updated design and built a custom content management system allowing the administrators the ability to update portions of the site as needed without the need to learn code.

We are proud of the new web site and hope it can be used as a tool for further campaigns.

We are donating our web site design and development services to one lucky bidder. A $2,500 value, so be sure to attend this great event to help dogs and cats in the Rochester, MN area.

More information can be found out about this event at www.pawsandclaws.org

The home page features an employee of Quarry Hill Vet along with some information about them. Quarry Hill Vet offers great small animal care in Rochester Minnesota and the surrounding areas. Their doctors have over 100 combined years experience so you can be sure your animal is well taken care of.

We are very pleased with the feedback so far on the site and look forward to seeing it grow with their business.